The museum teachers' Lounge is a series of sessions conducted by AIC as part of their efforts to engage and equip K12 teachers with strategies and knowhow to use the museum's resources effectively in the classroom. The title for the session on Thursday was 'Accessing Resources at the AIC'. At the session, participants were introduced to the technical capability of the online feature Collection available at AIC website.
Thou I have actually explored briefly, this online feature at Cyber pedagogy class during one of our site investigation lesson, I never really think about how it can be used to support teaching and learning till now...
In my opinion, the online feature could possibly become part of a teachers' 'routine' in preparing and/or conducting lessons that involve the use of museum's collection.
In the preparation 'routine', I imagine a teacher would first use the online feature to research and generate his/her own art collections of select artworks that are relevant to specific lessons. This would be followed by a recce at the gallery to view the actual select works and to visualize and plan how lessons may be conducted. Other factors such as the space, time and route would have to be considered during the recce. Finally, the teacher would return to the online site to add notes, reflections and/or other images of works that may be used in class.In the teaching 'routine', the online feature is useful as a pre-visit activity to engage students in researching and considering artworks they would like to study in the museum based on a given topic. At the museum, students could be allow time to explore the artworks of their choice as well as engaged in discussion in groups. As a post-visit activity, students could pen down their comments and thoughts online and share it with their peers. If mobile devices are available, it might even be effective for students to document their thoughts in the the device immediately (as an activity during the visit) instead of having to transfer them after the visit.
The above are just two examples of ways the museum's existing technology could be used. There are definitely more ways to optimize the feature to enhance teaching and learning.
But, at this point, I am curious and wonder how the museum, in their initial conceptualization stage, have thought about the function and utilization of this online feature and how these functions evolved after it is implemented. This question arises because I am currently involved in a work with the museum on investigating how distance learning can be formally incorporated into their education programmes to outreach to more audience. As such, I am thinking how features like this could also be useful in helping distance learners design and keep tab of their own learning.
i definitely think there is space to incorporate a tool like this into the distance learning project you all are working on, shirley. and these proposals/questions are excellent and i think show your thinking is going in the right direction. have you posed these thoughts to melissa or carolina yet?
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